


Start of Forever

by dl13 (How_Doth_the_Little_Crocodile)



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-18
Updated: 2013-04-18
Packaged: 2017-12-08 20:06:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/765462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/How_Doth_the_Little_Crocodile/pseuds/dl13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taylor Hall sees Jordan Eberle for the first time when he is 10 years old. He's awkward and a little sullen but Jordan sees him and comes bouncing up to him. He smiles his gap-toothed grin and sticks out his hand, announcing, “I’m Jordan."</p><p>Taylor loves him, just a little.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Start of Forever

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I make no money from this, I do not believe that this is actually true, and if you got here by Googling yourself, hit the back/exit button now, c'mon, you should know better than that.
> 
> Title from "Still Into You" by Paramore
> 
> Blame for this goes to Rebecca (rebmiller93/rnh1993) for mentioning that she wanted more Ebs/Hallsy stuff so this happened. Title was also her idea.

Taylor Hall sees Jordan Eberle for the first time when he is 10 years old. He's awkward and a little sullen, surrounded by so many people, standing against a wall with his shoulders hunched. He's never been that good at making friends, even at a hockey camp like this. But Jordan sees him and comes bouncing up to him, a year older and friendly and full of energy. He smiles his gap-toothed grin and sticks out his hand, announcing, “I’m Jordan. I’m a right winger.” Taylor takes it and says his own name and position. Jordan doesn’t let go, though, and starts dragging him towards a group of other boys, asking him to “come meet the guys”.

Taylor loves him, just a little.

 -

Taylor Hall sees Jordan Eberle again when they’re playing on the same team during the under-18s in Russia. He gets a chance to really know him, which isn’t as good as he thought it would be because it twists up his insides in ways he doesn’t want to think about when he gets Jordan to talk about his parents and his sisters and his brother and his girlfriend. He also gets to see him play and wow, he’s good. Like, really good and he smiles when he scores, even in practice, and Taylor’s breath catches in his throat.

Taylor loves him, or maybe just his hockey.

 -

Taylor sees Jordan again when they both make Team Canada for World Juniors. Jordan thumps him on the back when he hugs him, telling him it’s good to see him again. It’s been two years (Taylor could probably tell you the days if he ever allowed himself to count them) and it is good to see Jordan again. They’re friends, right? It’s always nice to see friends you haven’t in a while.

Then it’s the final 2 minutes of their game against the US in the finals and Jordan has just scored to take them into overtime and keep them in this thing to make their country proud and Taylor is just throwing himself into Jordan’s arms and they hit the ice hard but he doesn’t even care.

Taylor loves him so much it hurts, but it’s probably ok because all of Canada does too.

 -

Taylor sees Jordan again at training camp. He throws an arm around the younger rookie and tells him that he watched the draft. He seems more excited that Taylor went first then Taylor is. And maybe it’s not as cool but it comes pretty close when he realizes that he and Jordan still play beautifully together and that they’re being put on the same line pretty consistently. That’s why Jordan is right there when Taylor gets his first five-on-five goal of training camp, hugging him hard, harder than the easy-in at _training camp_ probably warranted. But he’s there and has his arms thrown around Taylor and Taylor isn’t about to complain.

Taylor loves him and loves the chance that they have to have this future with the Oilers together.

 -

Hallsy sees Ebby’s face after they’re told that they’re staying in Edmonton for the season and won’t be playing in OKC and the gratefulness and happiness that Hallsy knows is echoed in his own face just makes him want to throw his arms around Ebs. So he does. Teammates are allowed to do that sort of thing, right? Hockey’s a hug-heavy sport. So what if they’re not on the ice?

Hallsy loves him and Ebs is staying with him and that’s all that matters.

 -

Hallsy sees Ebs all the time now that they’re living together (and he really doesn’t want to discuss how many varying emotions he goes through whenever he says that phrase). He’s normally the first person he sees when he wakes up and the last person he sees before he goes to bed.

Hallsy loves him, more than he had thought and not as just a friend, but he’s trying to keep that to himself for now.

 -

Hallsy sees Ebs go through heartbreak after heartbreak with girls that aren’t as into him as he’s into them or that just want him for his money or when things just don’t work out. He’s there for him and plays NHL 10 with him until it’s 2 a.m. and they really do have to go to bed some time soon and then can play again after practice, ok? Ebs gives him a one-armed hug as he stumbles towards his own bedroom and Hallsy allows his head to thunk back against the wall before he pulls himself together and heads to bed himself.

Hallsy loves him and it’s starting to hurt.

 -

Hallsy sees Ebs go red when their new baby rookie, Ryan, quietly asks Horc what the deal is with the guys on his line and Horc snorts and answers, not so quietly, that, “Hallsy and Ebby are our own puppy-love story.” Ryan goes red, too, obviously not wanting the response to have been that loud, and everybody laughs, including Hallsy (but if he keeps shooting glances at Ebs as the bright color fades from his cheeks, well, nobody has to know). But he wonders at the reaction.

Hallsy loves him and he’s beginning to wonder if maybe Ebs loves him too and whether it’s worth the risk to find out.

 -

Hallsy sees Ebby’s eyes go wide when he finally gives in and presses his lips to Ebby’s. He sees it because he hadn’t thought to close his eyes when he did it. He’s more than a little drunk and Ebs is too, both loose and tired and sitting way too close to each other on their big couch. Ebs had smiled at him, same gap-toothed grin as when they had first met, and he really couldn’t help himself because it’s been _years_ of this, dammit, and he just wants so badly for this to be something he can have. He pulls away and Ebs makes a noise, chasing after his mouth with his own.

Hallsy loves him and maybe, just maybe, Ebs loves him too, just like he thought he might a year ago.

 -

Hallsy sees Ebs avoid his eyes the next morning, taking an aspirin and some water and disappearing back into his bedroom until it’s time to leave for practice. He avoids his eyes even as he gets in Hallsy’s car, even in the locker room, even on the ice. It’s probably why they play like crap and Krueger, Horc, Nuge, and Nail all ask them what’s wrong. They go home and avoid each other, Hallsy on the couch and Ebs holed up in his room.

Hallsy loves him and that’s why his heart is breaking.

 -

Hallsy sees Eb’s face when he begins to draw away soon after but he has to protect himself, ok? He has to stop letting Ebby’s face, his sad, disappointed, despondent eyes, affect him anymore. And what the hell anyway? He’s the one who started avoiding Taylor in the first place. He doesn’t get to be all depressed and shit just because Taylor’s pulling away in response to Jordan’s pulling away.

Taylor loves him just the same and fuck, does that hurt.

 -

Taylor sees Jordan really only at practice and games and team events now. He’s feeling like a guest in his own home and even Whits has noticed it. How could he not when Taylor and Jordan went from spending every waking moment together to hiding out in their respective rooms the moment they got home? They weren’t going on their ice cream dates anymore, they barely talked aside from the occasional “excuse me” if they were both in the hallway or on the stairs at the same time, and it sucks.

Taylor loves him but he’s starting to think that maybe he could get over it eventually.

 -

Hallsy sees Ebs bite his lip after he has pulled back from Hallsy on the couch. Whits had dragged them out of their rooms to watch a movie with him in the living room and they were going “to damn well like it”. They had begun fighting over something stupid (that was really hard to remember now) the moment Whits got up to grab a snack and Ebs had let out this noise of complete frustration and grabbed Hallsy by the back of his neck and tugged him down to kiss the taller man.

“I…” Ebs begins then trails off.

“Yeah?” Hallsy asks, not needing Ebs to say the words. He’s always been the one who was shit with words, it was always Ebs who knew what to say, but he thinks he understands without the words needing to be said this time, just like he understood when Jordan held his hand out to Taylor and didn’t let go that this was something special, that he needed to remember this moment for all of forever.

“Yeah,” Ebs says, telling Hallsy he got it right by dragging him back down to kiss him again… and Ryan walks in and fakes gagging before pelting them with pretzels out of the bowl in his hands, telling them to get a room. Ebs blushes and hides his face in Hallsy’s neck but Hallsy can’t bring himself to care.

Hallsy loves him but that’s definitely ok because he’s pretty damn sure that Ebs loves him too.

**Author's Note:**

> If you're into that sorta thing, I do have a tumblr (flyingwide) if you'd like to chat.
> 
> Most of this was an exercise for myself, to see if I could keep the damn format and still tell a story. You be the judge of how well I accomplished that.


End file.
